Friday, November 18, 2011

Product Positioning - A Lesson from a 9-year-old

I’ve spent well over 20 years in marketing. I’ve positioned so many products in the market that I’ve lost count. I’ve gathered the best resources on the web and written many of my own, but I have to admit that my best lesson in positioning came from my 9-year-old son. Here is a recent conversation:

Sandor: "Mom, I need a 50 cent chore."

Me: (I’m thinking great! I have this plant that was in my pond in its plastic pot, but it grew well beyond its pot so that it was twice the size of the pot.) "Okay, Sandor, see that plant that I pulled out of the pond? All those roots need to be cut off so that we can get that plastic pot out of there and put the rest in the compost." (I’m thinking this will keep him busy for at least an hour.)

Sandor: (Thinks for 20 seconds) "Okay!"

Me: (Very suspicious about him signing up for this much work for a mere $0.50) "Are you sure?"

Sandor: "Yep!" (I leave the room)

Sandor: "Alex! I get to perform surgery on a plant, this is so cool – would you like to try it first?"

Alex is Sandor's older sister.

Needless to say Alex did most of the work and Sandor got the 50 cents.

Okay, so in 20 seconds, he analyzed his target market (Alex) and found a message (surgery) that would appeal to her, then he added sense of urgency (try it first), threw in emotion (so cool) and was able to monetize (50 cents) the transaction.

I sure wish I could position a product that quickly. But, if you are like me and can’t do this as quickly as Sandor, you may want to use some of the resources that I have discovered on the web to help you position a product. Click on the binder below to view the sites: